DMW expands aid for returning MidEast laborers

Scores of overseas Filipino workers and their dependents arrived safely in the Philippines from Saudi Arabia recently as part of an ongoing government repatriation campaign driven by heightened tensions across the Middle East.

Among those returning Tuesday were 45 workers and five dependents who arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 aboard Qatar Airways flight QR928 from Riyadh.

An additional group of 15 workers from the Bahay Kalinga shelter in Riyadh arrived aboard Gulf Air flight GF154 after being transported overland to Dammam to catch their flights. A late-night Qatar Airways flight brought another 50 workers to Manila Tuesday evening.

Personnel from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) medical team met the arrivals at the airport to provide immediate medical screening, financial aid, and domestic transportation assistance to their home provinces.

DMW Assistant Secretary Venecio Legaspi reassured the returning workers that the government is prepared to assist those seeking long-term reintegration.

He cited that through the National Reintegration Network, returning workers who choose to remain in the Philippines will have access to employment assistance and government support programs.

The repatriations are being carried out under the “Saving Lives” component of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s UPLIFT initiative, supported by OWWA’s supplemental emergency repatriation fund.

From 19 to 20 October alone, OWWA successfully repatriated 99 workers, including an initial group of 34 that landed on Monday.

An additional 249 workers are booked and scheduled to return between 21 October and 26 October.

Fifty workers are set to depart from Al Qassim on Wednesday followed by 49 departing from Dammam on Friday.

On Sunday, a combined total of 110 workers will arrive from Dammam and Al Qassim, with a final group of 40 workers arriving from Al Qassim on Monday.

OWWA and DMW officials, in coordination with the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh and Migrant Workers Offices across Saudi Arabia, continue to manage land transfers and logistics to alternative departure airports in Al Qassim and Dammam.